Leviticus: Tabernacle as Symbol, Part One

The Tabernacle had a variety of functions for the Israelites. It was a place for leaders to meet with God, a place for sacrifices to be performed, and a place for the tribes to gather around to renew covenants and obligations to each other. But it also functioned as the central symbol of Israel's beliefs about God and the world, and it did this on a variety of levels. I'll spend the next few blogs briefly exploring the different symbolic and unspoken (at least to modern, Western ears) meanings behind the Tabernacle.

Tabernacle as Symbol of Pristine Creation
One of the very interesting things that stands out when you read God's instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle is how they parallel the creation of the world in Genesis 1. The Hebrew words used, the cadence and the repetition are strikingly similar. This is not a coincidence! Here is an example:

From Genesis 1:
A1 And God saw all that he had made and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. (Gen 1: 31)
B1 1The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. 2On the seventh day God finished the work which he had been doing, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had done. (Gen 2: 1– 2)
C1 And God blessed the seventh day and made it sacred, for on it God had ceased from all the work of creation which he had done. (Gen 2: 3)


From Exodus 39:
A2 All the work of the Tabernacle, the Tent of Encounter, was finished. The Israelites had done everything exactly as YHWH had commanded Moses: Thus had they done it. (Exod 39: 32)
B2 And Moses saw all the work and found that they had made it as YHWH had commanded: Thus had they made it. And Moses blessed them. (Exod 39: 43)
C2 You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the Tabernacle and all that is in it, and you shall make it sacred, along with all its furnishings. It shall be sacred. (Exod 40: 9)

The work is done according to God's plan and order, the work is approved, and then made holy. The point of this parallelism is that the Tabernacle is like a piece of new creation, without the curse of sin and death, plopped right down into the world. That also means that the Tabernacle is something akin to the Garden of Eden in the eyes of the Israelites: a place where God and humans are living together in harmony. This is also seen in some of the symbols in the Tabernacle: lamps shaped like fruit trees, and Cherubim guarding God's presence (compare with Genesis 3:24). When the Israelites build a Temple years later they expand upon this symbol, as the whole interior of the Temple is designed like a paradise (i.e. Eden).

So, the takeaway for an Israelite worshiper is that while he or she may not have direct access to Eden and God due to sin and corruption God still intends to keep them close by and bless them through the Tabernacle (Eden partially restored). It is now the place where heaven and earth meet (again, just like Eden) and therefore where God is revealed, where His blessings are poured out, and the place where people can know Him and be restored by Him. And of course as Christians, all of this points towards to Christ (John 1:14): who will live with us, reveal God to us, and restore us to God in a permanent and transforming manner.